Congratulations to both the men’s and women’s basketball teams for overcoming the odds and making their respective Final Fours this season. It’s quite an accomplishment for any team, in the crapshoot that is March Madness. Double credit to the women for making the final game and putting forth nothing less than their best effort in an impossible situation. I feel like the men didn’t perform their best against UNC — nerves were evident early, and some open shots were missed that needed to be hit in order to pull the upset. But that doesn’t discount their remarkable achievement in getting as far as they did. They should be nothing but proud of their achievements.

I also want to give a belated congratulations to the SU field hockey team, who won the national championship last fall. Cuse Country got on the field hockey train back in the early days, when we were searching for a fall sport alternative to Greg Robinson’s football disaster. I even went to a couple of games when they came through the DC area. So we were excited to see them finally win it all.

That said, this will be the final post on this blog. When my beloved team advances to the Final Four and I can’t manage to write a single post to discuss any aspect of the tournament run, it’s clear that writing in this space is no longer a priority for me. This blog began in the fall of 2006. It started out as a space for a group of friends to write about and discuss SU basketball. Over the next ten(!) seasons, all of our lives have changed. People got degrees, jobs, spouses, houses, kids (not all in that order), and things here got quiet. Though it’s been a labor of love, and though we are all still as passionate about SU hoops as we were then, there is just not enough gas left in this tank to keep it going. I’ve tried to keep on keeping on but it will come as no surprise to anyone reading this that the time has come to hang up the typewriter.

This blog covered an amazing period in the history of SU basketball. We saw two Final Four runs and several #1 rankings, including perhaps the best team ever to wear the Syracuse colors (derailed by FUCKING ASSHOLE Greg Monroe blowing out Arinze Onuaku’s knee). We saw lottery picks, one-and-dones, five-star busts, and seniors who built themselves from sideline players to team centerpieces. We saw Six Overtimes. We saw the Big East dissolve. We saw Josh Pace win an MVP award in New Zealand. We interviewed some former Orange players, and we analyzed the specifics of the team’s MySpace pages (yes, this blog is actually that old). Most of all, we shared our love for this program with each other and with the rest of you, denizens of the internet.

The Twitter account will remain active, so you won’t be completely free of our underinformed opinions. We’ll continue to leave some droppings on Facebook as well. And this site will stay ‘open’ as long as someone keeps paying the domain hosting bill (thanks Tim!) but there will be no more posts.

So, we leave you with a few things. First, CJ Fair crushing Otto Porter:

Second, Elvir Ovcina’s promotional photo from the website of his Belgian team, a photo dubbed “Elvir In Jail” by Tom:

Third, some thank yous:

– To the rest of the SU blogosphere: Orange::44 (the first on the scene, and still well worth your time), TNIAAM (who took it to the next level, and then like three more levels after that), and Orange Hoops, the ultimate site for information and knowledge about Syracuse Basketball through the years. Other sites have come and gone (some were awesome) but these are the pillars of the SU internet community of which we have been proud to be a part.
– To my fellow Cuse Country authors and contributors: Jer, Tom, Tim, Syracusan, Daz, and Andy, all of whom wrote far more entertaining stuff than I did.
– To our readers, commenters, and supporters, who turned this from just a bunch of guys yapping at each other into a bona fide web community.
– To all the players and coaches, and everyone else involved in Syracuse basketball, for giving us something worth talking about.
– And finally, to the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles. You know why.

And so we say, for the last time, and forevermore,

LET’S GO ORANGE!

]]>http://cusecountry.com/?feed=rss2&p=3903The streak continues!http://cusecountry.com/?p=3900
http://cusecountry.com/?p=3900#commentsFri, 12 Feb 2016 18:25:21 +0000Joshhttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3900I know, I haven’t posted here since November, two games into the season. Dreams of long, involved essays breaking down the specifics of Tyler Lydon’s footwork have given way to the realities of 1.5 full-time jobs. And yet, in the wake of last night’s victory over Florida State, SU has once again reached the point where they are assured of a winning season.

They’re now 17-8. With 6 regular season games left, at worst they will finish 17-14. Even if they then lose in the first round of the ACC tournament, and the first round of any post-season tournament they might be in after that, they will finish no worse than 17-16. Therefore, we can officially say that 2015-2016 will be Syracuse’s 46th consecutive winning season.

The Streak began with the 1970-71 Roy Danforth squad that went 17-9, featuring Greg Kohls and the best SU big man nobody talks about, Bill Smith. (Seriously, look at his career numbers.) SU’s current streak of 46 consecutive winning seasons is second only to UCLA’s 54. There is still a long way to go, including one coaching change (hopefully no more than that), before we catch them, but whether or not we do, this streak is worth celebrating, and this site will continue to do so for as long as it exists.

Which may be an hour and a half from now, but still.

]]>http://cusecountry.com/?feed=rss2&p=3900Choose your Bonaventurehttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3898
http://cusecountry.com/?p=3898#commentsWed, 18 Nov 2015 15:47:38 +0000Joshhttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3898You are on a basketball court with the ball in your hands. Your team is losing by 10 to a decided underdog road team that hasn’t beaten you since 1981. The home fans are restless and your coach is steaming mad. You are being guarded by a much smaller player, who nevertheless appears to be both faster and stronger than you. What do you do?

To force up a contested three-pointer, turn to page 75.
To dribble into traffic and probably turn the ball over, turn to page 92.
To attempt an entry pass, even though your team has no post presence, turn to page 43.

To me, that’s how the first half generally looked for the Syracuse offense. Clunky and disjointed, with no good options available. Meanwhile, on the other end of the floor, they were giving up offensive rebounds and open jumpers. It was uncomfortable to watch, and there was palpable concern

That said, you have to like how SU responded after halftime. Though they still had trouble cleaning their own glass, the offense started to really click. They were able to get the ball inside a bit more– it helped that Roberson was back on the floor after missing a large chunk of the first half with 2 fouls, and also that Coleman was able to throw his weight around early. But also SU seemed to put more of an emphasis on penetration drives, rather than just looking for threes. This forced St. Bonaventure to at least pay attention to what was happening in the paint area, and resulted in some wide-open threes for SU. I know the approach will be ‘focused’ on long-range shooting this season, but offense still needs to run ‘inside-out’, meaning drive the ball into the lane and then look for an open shooter. You can’t just pass it around. It’s also clear that SU’s best offensive lineup will have Tyler Lydon at center, at least for the foreseeable future. Coleman has not developed enough of a post game yet to be a reliable option, and the floor spacing is much better with Lydon. The issue with that lineup will be asking Lydon to battle on defense with the bigger ACC opponents.

By the way, it looks like Boeheim has already found his six-man rotation for the year. Kaleb Joseph was ineffective in limited first-half minutes on both ends of the floor, and Howard, while capably fitting into the offense (such as it was in the first half), was a big liability at the top of the zone. Right now he is biting on way too many pump fakes and letting defenders get past him. I expect that he will get better at that aspect of things. But he won’t get that chance in a game that SU is threatening to lose. It’s unsettling that Cooney and Gbinije had to each play 38+ minutes in this game, but it’s better than the alternative (i.e. losing).

I started to think during the game that this team reminds me a bit of the Dave Johnson team, 1991-92. What led me to that comparison was how Gbinije, as a senior, is being asked to basically do everything for this team — be the leading scorer, dangerous outside shooter, primary ballhandler, contributing rebounder, etc. — as Johnson was. Johnson had been a complementary player as a sophomore, became the #2 guy as a junior (on a team led by Billy Owens), and then had to be ‘the man’ as a senior, even though he was not what you would call a superstar. (He was a late first-round NBA draft pick, but didn’t amount to much in the pros.) The team that year was not expected to do much by prognosticators, but they ended up having a solid year.

I stopped by orangehoops.org to refresh my memory about this team, and found some more similarities. The 1991-92 squad did not have much of a frontcourt presence. Johnson was a ‘forward’ but with a combo-guard’s game, and only 6′5″. (He averaged 7 rebounds per game that year, by the way.) They had two centers on the roster — Conrad “McNasty” McRae, who was a shot-blocking beast with a limited offensive game, and Dave “Gus” Siock, who was basically a human tree trunk. But there was no real power forward. That team also had five players who could shoot effectively from deep. And their second-best player was a freshman by the name of Lawrence Moten — the difference this year being that Malachi Richardson was a superstar recruit, and Moten sort of came out of nowhere.

Interestingly enough, that team provided 2/3 of SU’s current assistant coaching staff: Autry and Hopkins. Both were starters. Autry was the 3rd leading scorer, and Hopkins was the scrappy defender who could score a little but mostly who got floor burns and head wounds.

Anyway, it’s not a perfect comparison; in particular, there is no Adrian Autry on this year’s team — well, OK, there is an Adrian Autry on this year’s team, but you know what I mean. There is no reliable true point guard. And the 1991-92 team had no analogue to Tyler Roberson. But I think the comparison of Gbinije to Dave Johnson is a particularly close one, and I’m hopeful that the season will turn out in a similar way.

]]>http://cusecountry.com/?feed=rss2&p=3898Welcome to the edgehttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3895
http://cusecountry.com/?p=3895#commentsTue, 03 Nov 2015 20:44:19 +0000Joshhttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3895Time to pop the lid on another season of Syracuse basketball. The “Fightin’ Citrus” finds themselves teetering on the edge of relevance. Not a single vote in the AP preseason top 25 poll. A coach who will (probably) miss a significant chunk of the season, and who can see the end of his career from here. Another tough schedule, both in and out of conference. This year we have, as has so often been the case the past few years, way more questions than answers. But nevertheless I will try to answer them. Just in case anyone is paying attention.

Q: Can Michael Gbinije be the unquestioned team leader?

A: Probably. He was almost there by the end of last season already. Rakeem Christmas was the focus of the offense but Gbinije was the spark. He made things happen. He’s gotten better every season and now is going to be asked to be “the guy” pretty much all the time. He’s going to play 38 minutes a game, anywhere from point guard to power forward. I think he will be able to handle the expanded role — just a little bit expanded from what he was already doing last year — and probably earn himself a pick in the NBA Draft.

Q: Can we expect anything more from Tyler Cooney?

A: If you are talking about Trevor Cooney, then… eh, maybe. We know he has the ability to “go off” and singlehandedly shoot another team out of the gym. We also know he hasn’t been able to do it with any regularity, when the other team’s defense chooses to focus on him. Last year he was often shut down. He showed flashes of a more complete game — taking advantage of overplays by driving to the basket — but was not consistently able to contribute in that way. That problem will only get worse unless someone on this team other than Gbinije shows that they are worth guarding.

Q: But what about the big guys?

A: We hope Roberson is ready for a starring role. His career trajectory so far mirrors that of Rick Jackson: raw flashes as a freshman, surprisingly positive contributions as a sophomore. Perhaps he is ready to make that next step to “reliable scorer and rebounder” as a junior. One difference, though, is that Jackson was playing alongside stalwart center Arinze Onuaku. Roberson is joined by Dajuan Coleman who is perhaps the most pivotal unknown of the season. If Coleman can stay on the court (not just his knees, but overall conditioning after missing so much time, and even foul trouble) we know he has the skill set to be a major factor. But until he proves it, I am not ready to count on much from him. And that will probably be the team’s biggest weakness, because the rest of the frontcourt bench is, to quote John Cleese, “wahfer-thin“. Obokoh probably is not ready for major minutes — though I will say I am higher on him than most pundit types seem to be, I think he’s got more court sense than (for example) DaShonte Riley did as a sophomore — and then there’s Tyler Lydon, who will be pressed into service in ways for which he is not prepared. He could surprise us all, but it’s dangerous to count on too much from freshman big men. Heck, remember Chris McCullough last year. He was… good. Occasionally awesome, dripping with potential, but spent a lot of time just being relatively ordinary. And he was a 5-star recruit, first-round NBA pick.

This is all to say that if Dajuan Coleman can be very good — scoring, rebounding, and defending (or at least two of those three) — the team can be very good. Without much from him, well, they will struggle against any decent competition.

Q: But these freshmen are awesome, right?

A: Sure hope so. Looks like Malachi Richardson is going to start, and based on last night’s game, he ain’t going to be shy about putting up shots. He’s going to have some great nights… but also some clunkers. Just like any freshman. (See again: McCullough, Chris.) Really, you never know with freshmen. A few are great right away, some are pretty good but take time to adjust to the college game, and some just flame out and end up off the team within two years. I’m not ready to pronounce any of these guys “The Next” anything until I’ve seen them in real action. Also, don’t forget that it usually takes a season or more for new players to master the rotations and positioning of the Boeheim 2-3 Zone.

Q: Did you forget about Kaleb Joseph?

A: Yes. My bad. Last year’s starting point guard is this year’s top backcourt reserve. He’s supposedly improved his jump shot (we shall see) but what will keep him on (or off) the floor is his defense. He had a lot of steals early in the season last year, but ended up being pretty bad in the zone when things got tough, to the point where he lost major minutes to Ron Patterson. Will he be better in his second year in the system? Honestly, who knows? He’s a major mystery. His chance to contribute will probably depend more on what is coming from the other new players. If Richardson in particular shows himself to be a capable wing player, particularly on defense, then Boeheim won’t often need to move Gbinije to forward and insert Joseph. But if Richardson struggles, that will open up time for Joseph to leave a mark on the season.

Q: Why are you talking about defense so much?

A: Because the pattern of success for Syracuse over the past several years has been built on their defense. Scoring comes and goes — how many times have you heard Boeheim say “we didn’t make shots” in his postgame statement? This is one of the huge differences between college and pro basketball. It’s (on the whole) rare for college guys to be reliable scorers. They do exist, but most college players run hot and cold and you just never know what you are going to get on a nightly basis. The usual formula for success for SU has been to play a lockdown zone, and hope you can score enough to win. It hasn’t made for many ‘pretty’ games, but it’s mostly been an effective strategy. This year, with the loss of last year’s highly effective rim protector, my guess is that the defense takes a measurable step backward. But keeping the 6′7″ Gbinije at the top of the zone will help ameliorate that problem a little. Expect to see a zone that is a little more ‘packed-in’ (to compensate for the lack of interior size and to cut down on driving lanes) and relies on length and recovery, more than quick rotations, to cover the outside shooters.

Q: So is SU an NCAA Tournament team?

A: Maybe. Probably they will be riding the bubble all season. There isn’t a lot of margin for error for this team. A key injury or unfortunate early upset could spell N-I-T. Or, they could have things break in a positive direction — Coleman comes back strong, Richardson is as good as advertised, etc. — and end up a solid mid-range NCAA seed. Preseason, Loony Lunardi has them as an 11 seed. Seems about right, until we have a better idea of who they will actually be.

See you when the season starts for real next weekend!

]]>http://cusecountry.com/?feed=rss2&p=3895Coaching!http://cusecountry.com/?p=3891
http://cusecountry.com/?p=3891#commentsWed, 25 Feb 2015 22:50:11 +0000Joshhttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3891Hidden among the many, surprising, surprisingly many bright spots in last night’s victory over the South Bend University Turtlenecks was another example of Jim Boeheim’s brilliance. I shouldn’t still be amazed, but nevertheless I am, at how well JB understands the college game in general, and his team in particular.

The brilliant move was to leave Christmas in the game after his fourth foul. Not just for a few more minutes, but for as long as he was able to stay on the floor.

To refresh your memory: there were about 14 minutes left, and Syracuse led by 4, when Rak picked up foul #4. In this situation, probably 98% of coaches would take out their star player right away, and leave him on the bench until there were only a few minutes left — or until they lost the lead and felt the game slipping away. They would hope that their replacement would be able to ‘hold down the fort’ long enough that the game would still be in reach at the end. Boeheim did the opposite. He kept Rak in, to make sure the game stayed close for as long as possible. When he finally was disqualified, 8 1/2 minutes of game time later, SU had in fact increased their lead to 8 points. The margin shrunk but the lead never disappeared over the final 5:18, and SU came away with the win.

There are a number of reasons why this strategy made sense. But it took Boeheim just an instant of sizing up the situation to know immediately that it was the right move.

First, Rak has had his share of foul trouble and has become skilled at playing conservatively enough to not foul. You could see it several times on defense when he backed away from drivers (while still maintaining enough presence to alter some shots). There were a couple of semi-loose rebounds that he let go into ND hands, rather than sticking his nose in and fighting for them. He made extra sure to set very non-moving screens.

But more than that, JB knows his team. He knows that without Rak on the floor, the offense is going to stall. But — and here’s the key — that’s fine! Late in the game, with a lead on the road, you are already going to take the air out of the ball like you were Tom Brady. That’s something you can do with Chino on the court. In other words, if you have to play for 5 minutes without Rak, it makes more sense to play those 5 minutes with a lead at the end of the game, when ND is going to start getting desperate, than to do it in the middle of the 2nd half, and let the opponent gain confidence for the stretch run. This is Boeheim knowing his team AND knowing the other guys and, more generally, college basketball players. He knows how their psyches work, how momentum shifts are more pronounced in college than in the NBA (because shooters in college are so much less reliable) and he correctly assessed that their best chance to win was to get as much time out of Christmas as possible and then hope to hold on the rest of the way.

Now, this strategy of course was not guaranteed to work. Rak might have fouled out earlier, or ND might have made a couple more shots (or SU a couple fewer) in those last few minutes with Christmas watching helplessly from the sidelines. But it’s clear that the decision to just let Rak play as long as he could manage gave SU the best chance to win.

And, of course, they did. ROAD WIN!!

]]>http://cusecountry.com/?feed=rss2&p=3891The streak surviveshttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3882
http://cusecountry.com/?p=3882#commentsThu, 12 Feb 2015 07:21:16 +0000Joshhttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3882Syracuse basketball has once again guaranteed a winning season. That’s 44(!!) seasons in a row without a loss.

Once again I will shout it into the internet where nobody will hear it:

THIS IS THE LONGEST ACTIVE STREAK, AND 2ND LONGEST IN RECORDED HISTORY.

Here is your annual proof: a screen shot taken from the NCAA record book, published before this season. (The “2013″ refers to the 2013-14 season.)

.

This year it took longer than expected, but also not as long. Normally the winning season is assured after the team’s 17th win, but with the recently announced postseason ban there will be only the 31 regular-season games, so 16 is enough. On the other hand, never in recent memory have we had to wait until mid-February for that clinching win. Still, with the team likely to be the underdog in almost all of their remaining games, I’m (abnormally? unreasonably?) happy that they got it done tonight when they had their best chance.

I don’t know what it will take for the SU Sports Information Department to start including this sports information in their press kits. Is there someone I can tweet at? Should I start a hashtag movement? How close do they have to get to UCLA’s record — that’s John Wooden UCLA — before someone besides me notices?

…anybody?

]]>http://cusecountry.com/?feed=rss2&p=3882Just get through ithttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3880
http://cusecountry.com/?p=3880#commentsSat, 31 Jan 2015 19:26:12 +0000Joshhttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3880I don’t think I have ever seen a Syracuse basketball season that was anything like this. Dancing on the edge of disaster for game after game. Trying to cobble together a successful season with essentially three competent players. It’s a testament to the post dominance of Rakeem Christmas that the team has even managed to get into the precarious position in which they find themselves. But not only do they have basically no margin for error, they have to even play above their standard game in order to pull out a win against even middling competition.

The closest recent parallel to this team would be the 2005-2006 squad. That team was on the wrong side of the bubble line going into the Big East Tournament. Their first-round opponent in that tourney was Cincinnati in what everyone essentially said was a play-in game. That squad was 1.5 seconds from the NIT before the Gerry McNamagic (TM) began. We all know the story. But think about it. Without Rakeem Christmas, this year’s team wouldn’t have won ten bleeping games. These guys were not ready. They needed him.

The other starters on the 2006 squad were Eric Devendorf (freshman year) and the junior triumvirate of Watkins, Roberts, and Nichols, who were all entering their first years as full-time starters (having played behind Warrick, Forth, and Pace). The team lost 10 regular season games prior to their BET run. But even that team had some amount of depth. Four bench guys played in 29 or more games, and a fifth (skinny freshman Andy Rautins) got into 20. This year, thanks to injuries and ineffectiveness, there is no bench. There is Ron Patterson who comes in for Kaleb Joseph when Joseph is having a bad game. That’s it. Everyone else plays 40 minutes if they can. And good god help us if they can’t.

At this stage I don’t expect this squad will make the NCAAs. I don’t think anyone does, outside of the locker room perhaps. It is true that they have a lot of games against really good teams coming up and if they can come through and win a couple, they can end up with a tournament-worthy resume. But so far when they’ve had those opportunities, they’ve not been able to come through. The UNC game, sure, but primarily the loss to Villanova, and the loss to Miami. These were both games that SU gave away in one fashion or another. I’m not sure which hurts more. Nova on the road would have been a solid resume builder ’statement’ win. But losing to another bubble team — a conference foe no less — at home is the kind of thing that makes the difference in the selection room. It’s clear that SU will have to grab a couple of big wins down the road, whether in the rest of the regular season or the ACC tournament. I just hope they win enough games to at least qualify for the NIT.

And so has the blog. We are gonna give this another try. Changes in life circumstance have left me hopeful that I can carve out some time every so often to keep the internet dream alive. At the very least we’re remaining active on Twitter during games, so drop a follow @CuseCountry when you have a minute.

I didn’t see any of the preseason contests but I was able to watch both of SU’s first two ‘real’ games. Some might call ‘em cupcakes, but you can’t blame Boeheim for this part of the schedule. Yell at whoever books the 2K Classic. (In fact, the nonconference slate looks rather challenging this year. Probably not going 25-0 again.) Having seen the guys in 80 minutes of live action now, a few things jump out.

1. We are young

Heartache to heartache, we stand!

(Sorry.)

Honestly, though. You’ve got Rakeem Christmas, suddenly looking like (and being looked upon as) a stabilizing veteran force. I’m pretty sure it was just last year when he spent long stretches looking lost and getting benched in favor of a guy with cheese wheels for hands. Now all at once he’s the rock that the whole team leans on. OK, fine, I’ll give that to you. But who’s next? Cooney and Gbinije. Each guy has been in the program a while, sure, but each has only one year of significant contributions. After them, the next most experienced player is sophomore Tyler Roberson.

Now, youth is not necessarily a bad thing. Syracuse has a proud history of being well-served by freshman talent. But as solid as Joseph and McCullough have looked so far, they are not Carmelo Anthony and Jonny Flynn. Not that I am expecting them to be, mind you. That’s more than one can ask from any player, let alone from freshmen. I’m just saying that they do not look ready to be leaned on the way those guys were. Hence, we are young.

2. We aren’t strong

No one can tell me I’m wrong. Kennesaw State was way overmatched but Hampton brought a few brutes along with them. They had some interior presence and strength to make up for their lack of height. I tweeted during the Kennesaw game that Rakeem looked like ‘a man among boys’ and it’s true. He’s had 4 years in the weight program and has bulked up to a serious playing weight. But after him the front line is… reedy. (Unless Dajuan Coleman comes back.) Roberson is probably the next biggest dude out there and he’s got a ways to go. For a long stretch against Hampton SU went with Gbinije and Johnson at the wings; those guys are “long and athletic” but not exactly bulky. Rak has been a rebounding machine so far but traditionally in the SU zone the forwards are the main rebounders. We got spoiled last year with Grant and Fair gobbling up everything in sight; I doubt we can rely on that this year. We’ll match up OK with a lot of teams but will probably have trouble with the ‘bruiser’ squads, the likes of Marquette… I mean can you imagine this team playing Marquette’s usual army of 6′8″-275lb. linebackers? Rak would foul out in 5 minutes and we’d get like 12 rebounds total.

3. We play defense

Lest it seem like all I am going to do is pick out flaws, let me point out some of the positives of what they’ve shown so far. The defense, which has really been the strong point of this team for the past several years, once again looks devastatingly effective. Hampton made a few good zone-busting plays but for each one of those there were four or five possessions where they could not get a good shot. The combined wingspan of the five guys is ridiculous. What they may lack in brute strength they will make up for in pure reach. Neither of the first two opponents has broken 50 points. Last year they held nearly every opponent not named Duke under 70; one piece of that, though, was the deliberate pace of the Orange offense reducing the number of possessions. Even with that slow pace, cupcake teams were still breaking 50 and sometimes 60 most of last year. This team plays faster and yet its opponents shoot worse. It’s not the most effective direct comparison, I know, but I am excited at the potential for another Shut It Down season.

4. We have weapons

Everyone is talking about the emergence of Christmas as an offensive factor (I won’t yet say “force”; give it a few more games) but when you look at the rotation, every single guy getting meaningful minutes looks like he has the potential for busting out a 20-point game. Nobody is probably going to do it all that consistently. And there will be games where it doesn’t happen for anyone. And we will probably lose those games. But this offense is dripping with possibility. We’ve seen Cooney go unconscious before, so there’s that. But honestly I think every one of the rotation players could have a game this year where he just gets into a groove and dominates. We saw BJ Johnson do it in game 1 already. Patterson for sure has that potential — he’s got some “Microwave” Vinnie Johnson in him, and we are all waiting for the game where he just tosses in threes like pennies into a fountain. Gbinije will find a matchup that he can exploit somewhere down the line.

But the one guy who might explode more than any other is Kaleb Joseph. Right now he is focusing on running the team and is really not looking to shoot. He’s only taken 8 shots through two games; Patterson takes 8 shots getting out of bed in the morning. But he is so quick, and “sneaky strong”, that as he gets more comfortable being the lead guard and orchestrating the game, he is going to start putting up much bigger numbers. You heard it here first. He’s going to become more of a scorer as the year goes on, and the offense will be much more dynamic. This is particularly because he’s probably the best on the team at creating a shot for himself. (Maybe Christmas, but post players are really a different breed in this regard.) Gbinije too, but Joseph probably more so. When defenses get tougher, and guys like BJ Johnson and Trevor Cooney are not able to shake free for open jumpers, it will be up to Kaleb to put some points on the board.

5. Boeheim gonna Boeheim

You may not like him as a person, but damn if he doesn’t just get it done Every. Single. Year. Take whatever coach you want, and give me James Arthur and five “wing forwards” and a few months for him to teach them the zone, and I’ll take my chances.

Dome is a battlefield.

]]>http://cusecountry.com/?feed=rss2&p=3876Handling their businesshttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3867
http://cusecountry.com/?p=3867#commentsSun, 12 Jan 2014 19:34:33 +0000Joshhttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3867Syracuse’s win over North Carolina yesterday was a thing of beauty — as long as you don’t care about shooting percentages. Which I don’t. Sure, it’s nice when you hit shots and it fires up the crowd, but in my dotage I’ve become much more of a fan of SU’s defense. And boy were they playing defense yesterday. The shot blocking was ridiculous. The hustle was turned up to 11. Scrapping, clawing, tipping passes, smothering opposing players. Everything worked just as it’s supposed to, and the result was a historically bad day for the Tarheels.

It helped, I guess, that UNC does not have many legitimate outside threats. After enduring periods of unreasonable long-range bombing from both Miami and Virginia Tech, it was refreshing to face an opponent who didn’t make a bunch of 30-footers. But SU (read: Cooney) was almost as bad from outside in this game, but they had so many more possessions thanks to rebounding, steals, and hustle. Whatever they are putting into Jerami Grant’s Gatorade before the games now, don’t stop. That kid has turned into the Tasmanian Devil out there, whirling around like a madman and consuming every loose ball that comes his way.

As Tyler Ennis goes up for a shot, Jerami Grant is already crashing the offensive glass.

It’s funny, but I am only now starting to believe that this team has a chance to go deep into the tournament. And it’s not because they have “so many weapons”, because we’ve seen some bad shooting performances from the Orange this year. It’s because of the defense, which they rode to the Final Four last year and which, despite an entirely new starting backcourt, is still really, really good. Only two of SU’s sixteen opponents have reached 70 points this year: Fordham and Cal. Meanwhile, eight of the sixteen have been held to 54 points or less, including all three ACC opponents to date, and Indiana. That’s just dominant defense. And bodes well for the future. I am quick to assume the worst and always hesitate to believe, but it’s getting harder and harder not to.

]]>http://cusecountry.com/?feed=rss2&p=3867Reese’s Gold (Pro Update January 2014)http://cusecountry.com/?p=3832
http://cusecountry.com/?p=3832#commentsSun, 12 Jan 2014 14:52:04 +0000Joshhttp://cusecountry.com/?p=3832Happy new year to all you out there in Orangeland. The fruits of the Syracuse basketball program are spread far and wide across the globe, and from time to time we extend our cybertendrils and draw them in from the far corners all to one place. In other words: the whole world is Cuse Country.

Boeheim likes to complain about reportersGreensborothe RPI the NCAA’s rating system that doles out program penalties based on athletes’ student-athletes’ academic progress, or lack thereof. His contention is that if a basketball player gives up school to pursue a professional playing career, then his program has prepared that person for a career and a life just as well, if not better, than a college degree would, and isn’t that the whole point? And he should know, because there are currently TWENTY-ONE former Orangemen getting paid to play someplace. (It would be twenty-two, except that Jonny Flynn’s bad hip acted up again so he got cut from his Chinese team before the season even started. Once again: screw you Kurt Rambis!) And we’ve got info on all of them, including photographs, interviews, a surprising number of highlight videos, and all-around general amazement.

The four guys in the NBA should be well-known to you: Dion Waiters, Wes Johnson, Michael Carter-Williams, and of course Saint Carmelo. Syracuse.com has been providing daily updates on these four guys, along with local legend Andray Blatche, and their notable news stories have been thoroughly (and punctually) covered on TNIAAM, so I’m not going to get into their seasons in this space. Chances are you already have a good idea of how things are going with each of them. That’s good, because that gives us more time to delve into the rest of the guys.

ABA
I almost never start these things out by looking at the ABA. The league is kind of a joke. It barely meets the minimum standards for “organized basketball league”, and there are tons of new teams each year replacing the tons of old teams that lost money and folded, often mid-season. However, I couldn’t bury this news at the bottom. Check out who is on the roster of the South Florida Gold:

Holy shinola!

Now, I can’t tell you anything about his stats, or even whether he gets any playing time, because there are no stats published for ABA games. Presumably the teams keep track internally, but can’t be bothered to post the information for their tens of fans. But damn if the kid isn’t drawing a paycheck of some sort on a professional basketball team. Good on ya, Brandon.

Okay. From there, let’s jump back up, much closer to the top levels. There are two leagues these days that tend to house the NBA-possible talent. If you’re young and ambitious, you play in the D-League. If you’re older and want to get paid, you play in China.

The D-League is currently home to three Orange alums. Arinze Onuaku is back with the Canton Charge after his brief early-season stint with the Pelicans. He quickly got back to crushing the opposition, with a string of four double-doubles in five games in December (and 9 boards in the fifth game), showing the skills that got him on the Pelicans’ roster in the first place. He was 11-11 from the floor in one of the games. Presumably he took no shots from more than 3 feet, but who knows? Maybe he’s got a little jumper now too. Unfortunately he bruised a knee and has missed the last two weekends of games, one of which was the big D-League showcase in Reno. Another setback — you feel for him — but hopefully he comes back strong. James Southerland, cut from the Charlotte Bobcats after a few weeks and only one appearance, is launching threes off the bench of the Los Angeles D-Fenders. He’s only hitting 21% of his 3-point attempts, though, which does not speak well for his chances to get back into the Association. In his most recent game he did score 21 points: he was 1-6 from deep but 8-9 inside the arc. Maybe he’s trying to round out his game. Not a bad idea. Finally, Scoop Jardine is D-leaguing with the Tulsa 66ers. But he hasn’t played yet due to a knee injury. He tweeted on Wednesday that his rehab schedule has him about 3 weeks from playing. Here’s hoping.

In China, we’ve got two lanky guys who were in the NBA last year but couldn’t stick with a team this fall. Both Hakim Warrick and Donte Greene are presumably hoping to get back to the pros next season, if not later this year. Warrick is playing for Liaoning, whose team name is the Panthers, or the Hunters, or perhaps the Flying Leopards, depending on what source you believe. He’s played in only seven games but he’s averaging 21 points and 9 boards per game. His stats are here, and here is your photographic evidence:

If you squint, it looks like he’s on the Lakers.

As for Donte Greene, he’s playing for the DongGuan Leopards (not to be confused with Warrick’s Flying Leopards, or maybe this is why they have so many aliases). His numbers are just below Hak-level, at 19 points and 7 boards a game. Unlike Warrick, he has been on the team all year and has played in 23 games. True to his nature, about 1/3 of his shot attempts have been three-pointers, though he’s made only 30% of them so far. Here he is taking it to the hole, while being distracted by the camera flash:

In case you are wondering, these two teams did in fact face each other recently. On New Years’ Day, Warrick and Greene faced off, after undoubtedly chatting pre-game about SU’s win over Eastern Michigan earlier that morning. Warrick’s team won by two. Hak had 28 points and 12 rebounds; Donte had 14 & 10.

While we’re in those far eastern time zones, a quick look at the season of Josh Pace in Australia. He plays for the Townsville Crocodiles. That’s right, there is a real place called Townsville. It’s a suburb of Cityburg, I think. Josh played in New Zealand during the spring and summer (as he has done for several years now) although it’s fall and winter there, of course. But Australian basketball schedules follow those of the rest of the world, so their season runs from October through March. Josh has played in 11 games for the Crocs, averaging 16 points and 5 boards per game. He shows up on this highlight reel dishing a couple nice assists. Make sure to watch after the highlights to the “kid vs kid” promotion they have. “Dress Like An Orange” has nothing on this:

And here’s an interview from the preseason in which he gives some props to SU’s 2003 title:

Though: “36 or 72 teams”? Sounds like he has been living in Oceania for too long.

OK, back to the Western world. There are six guys currently playing in Europe. Two are in France. Kris Joseph joined Elan Chalon after getting cut at the end of Orlando Magic training camp and immediately turned their fortunes around. They are 6-2 since he joined the squad, and though he is only averaging 12.4 ppg, that number is depressed by a game in which he hurt his knee early and was therefore scoreless. It looks as if he’s playing through the pain, because his stats are down across the board since that injury. They haven’t had a game since December 27, though, so hopefully the rest has helped him. Chalon also plays in the Eurocup, and went 3-2 in their five games with Joseph on the roster. Unfortunately for them, they had been 1-4 without him, and so were unable to advance beyond the first round of group play. He shows up in this game recap video (#32 in red) hitting a three at the 1:20 mark.

Know who else is in that video? Paul Harris. #13 in white, playing for Nancy. You can see him run into a hard screen, and later get schooled on a step-back jumper, trying to defend Chalon’s point guard. But if you’d rather see him dunk, here you go — first highlight on the reel:

Overall Paul is averaging 12 points and 5 rebounds for Nancy. He’s had a very inconsistent season. For instance, he was in the starting lineup for his first game, and was scoreless. Next game, therefore, he didn’t start, and promptly scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. His whole season is kind of like that; he’s scored in double figures in just 8 of 14 games, but he did hit 30 points once.

Next door to France, Andy Rautins (and his oddly red beardlet) is playing in Germany for Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt. He’s one of the league’s top outside shooters, hitting 42% from deep, and has been selected to participate in the BBL All-Star Game. He’s averaging over 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists per game. He has missed the last two games, though, due to some injury, the details of which I have been unable to track down. Hope he is healthy in time for the All-Star game on the 18th. I did find this article from October which has one of the better headlines I’ve seen: The Explosive Andy Rautins Show Eclipses The Fraport Skyliners Past The Eisbaeren Bremerhaven 88-72. When his playing career is over, I hope he moves back to Syracuse and hosts “The Explosive Andy Rautins Show” on Time Warner Cable Sports. Sponsored by Burdick Kia.

About 400 miles south of Frankfurt, Brandon Triche is the starting shooting guard for Aquila Basket Trento, currently 12-4 and in first place in Italy’s “DNA-Gold” league (their second division league). He’s averaging around 16 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists. His team bio page is a little “getting to know you” interview, in which he declares that his “Libro Preferito” is “la biografia di Michael Jordan” and among his hobbies are “al cinema, al ristorante, al bowling”. And they got him to smile — at least, as much as he is probably able:

Better than that, though, are the highlight videos. You saw, at the top of this post, the clip of Brandon making a bid for his own Italian league poster. Somewhat worse, and therefore better, is this promotional video from the team’s website titled “Super Brandon Triche!” which appears to be little more than a selection of generic plays in which he was involved, spliced together, with a beat underneath. The highlights include not one but TWO free throws. Super!

You also have got to like the mini-fro.

Darryl Watkins is playing in Belgium for Belgacom Spirou Charleroi. The former Sacramento King (remember that?!) is only averaging 8.1 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in league play. He’s the first of the former Orange on this list that is not averaging double figure scoring (well, except maybe Brandon Reese). He’s had some decent games but nothing exceptional. His best was 16 points and 7 boards in the first game of the year. Spirou was also in the Eurocup, and Mookie did a little better there, posting averages of 11.2 ppg and 6.4 rpg. Coincidentally, Spirou was in the same 6-team group as Kris Joseph’s Chalon squad. They played twice in the round-robin, though Joseph was only on Chalon’s roster the second time around. And just like Chalon, Spirou failed to advance out of group play. Oh well. Here’s Watkins taking it right at some Belgian dude.

Watkins’ classmate Demetris Nichols is playing in Russia, for a team in Samara which is included in the part of Russia that counts as Europe. So he’s on our Europe list. He plays for Krasnie Krilya, who have perhaps the most communist-looking basketball logo I’ve ever seen (so far). They play in Russia’s top league, which includes a number of fringe NBA guys. (For instance, one of Demetris’ teammates is point guard Aaron Miles, last seen getting lit up by Gerry McNamara in the first half of the 2003 title game.) Nichols is averaging 14.6 points and 3 rebounds per game. He’s come on strong lately, with four of his top five scoring outputs occurring in his last four games, with a high of 28. He’s shooting 40% from deep, which seems about right. Here is the highlight reel from his last game. He hits a three early, and has a sweet baseline drive and dunk around the 2:20 mark; most of the rest of his appearances involve him getting scored on, which is why he isn’t in the NBA anymore. He also commits a charge. Good times. Ah, but the Russian cheerleaders make up for it, more than a little.

Demetris’ team is also playing in this year’s EuroChallenge, which is like the EuroCup but for cruddier teams. (And EuroCup itself is for second-tier teams; the top squads on the continent are in the Euroleague.) He averaged 13 points and 5 rebounds per game over six games. Unlike Watkins or Joseph, Nichols’ team has advanced out of the first round; the next stage begins in a few days. Finally, before we leave Russia, here’s his name in Cyrillc:

A quick note: missing from the list of European ballers are some familiar names. Preston “Mert” Shumpert has finally called it quits after a long and highly successful career in Turkey, where he was an all-star several times and won the MVP award one year, and eventually became a dual citizen. Prior to Turkey, he also played in Italy and France. Also, the great Elvir Ovcina seems to have taken his last ill-advised three-pointer. He had played in Germany for the past few years, and several other European nations before that. Last year he averaged 12 and 7; you’d think he’d be able to get a job if he wanted one (and if he’s healthy). If he is indeed done, he leaves behind a legacy unmatched in Cuse Country Pro Update history. Namely, this promo photo from Belgium, 2007:

Man, that never gets old. Elvir’s departure from the scene leaves Warrick and Pace as the elder statesmen of the group, each from the Syracuse class of 2005. Shumpert was 2002 but Elvir was 1999! That’s a 14-year career, bitches.

Back to the land of the living. There are two former Orangemen kicking it in Israel. Rick Jackson is doing work for Altshuler Shaham Gilboa Galil. He averages 14.4 ppg (leads the team, 13th in the league) and 7.6 rpg (leads the team, 9th in the league). He’s also 11th in the league in dunks, at 0.7 per game, which is an official statistic. (Or, as our illustrious founder Tim would say, “two point dunk shot”.) Here he is, about to put up one of those patented reverse lefty layups:

And this is… something else… that was at the game… and now haunts my nightmares…

Also playing in Israel is Eric Devendorf… well, sort of. He’s got a herniated disk in his back and returned to Central New York for treatment after just six games. He was averaging over 20 points per game for Hapoel Afula, who are in the second-tier league in Israel (so he would never face Jackson’s first-division team). Hopefully he gets right and then gets back to ballin’.

Finally, we come back to the good old USA. You may have seen the recent item that Lawrence Moten was named coach of the Rochester RazorSharks of the Premiere Basketball League (a step up from the ABA, consisting of teams that used to be in the ABA but were too well-run to maintain their affiliation there and formed their own, reasonably managed league a few years ago). And, as TNIAAM first reported, he has two former Orangemen on his team: Mookie Jones and Louie McCroskey. (Yes, I know McCroskey transferred to Marist and Jones left early. They’re still sons of the program.) Rochester does me the magnificent favor of posting game stats on their website (only for their team though; let the opposition keep their own damn stats). They have played three games so far. I’ll do the full breakdown. In the first, Mookie had 7 points, one rebound, and two steals, while Louie had 5 points, 7 boards, and one assist. In the second, Mookie had 7 points, 2 rebounds, and one assist; McCroskey was scoreless but managed one board, one assist, and three turnovers. In the third game, Mookie had 3 points and 4 boards, while Louie had 4 points, 4 boards, 1 assist and 1 steal.

That’s it. That’s the list. Twenty-one guys, from Carmelo Anthony to Brandon Reese, playing professional basketball. Hope you enjoyed this whirlwind run through the world of international major- and minor-league hoops. Now that you know where everyone is playing, we’ll update you from time to time as the season progresses, picking out the interesting bits. In particular, I’m now aware of the proliferation of overseas highlight videos and will continue to comb the tubes in search of the most Syracuse-centric content I can find. (Super Brandon Triche indeed.) So stay tuned - and thanks for reading!